Julia hits Nicaragua, Central America as a hurricane, with torrential rain, floods

Julia was crossing the Pacific Ocean toward El Salvador late Sunday after leaving torrential rain and floods in Nicaragua and nearby Honduras.

Julia, the fifth hurricane of the season, landed as a Category 1 storm before dawn on Sunday in Nicaragua, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was downgraded to a tropical storm as it traveled across the country, the hurricane center said.

Julia is expected to leave behind significant damage that could take months or years for the region to recover.

El Salvador was bracing for the tropical storm, which is expected to hit its coast by Monday morning.

In a single day, Julia entered near Laguna de Perlas, a coastal municipality

facing the Atlantic Coast in Nicaragua and traveled across the Central American country. Tropical storm warnings

remained in effect for Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.

The storm gained strength in the span of a

day — late Sunday, it was bringing 75 mph winds compared to 70 mph winds in the morning — and continued to pose a great threat, said Robert Garcia, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami. “The threat of mudslides and flash flooding will remain no mater what [Julia’s] classification is,” he said.

In Nicaragua, Vice President Rosario Murillo told TN8 television that there had been no reports of deaths so far, but power and communications were cut to some areas. She said that 9,500 people had been evacuated to shelters.

Guillermo González, director of Nicaragua’s Disaster Response System, told official media that people at high risk had been evacuated from coastal areas by noon Saturday. The army said it delivered humanitarian supplies to Bluefields and Laguna de Perlas for distribution to 118 temporary shelters.

In Colombia, the nation’s disaster agency reported Sunday that Julia blew the roofs off several houses and knocked over trees as it blasted past San Andres Island east of Nicaragua. There were no immediate reports of fatalities

Heavy rains and evacuations were also reported in Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica, where some highways were closed due to the downpours.

In Guatemala, storms since early May had already caused caused at least 49 confirmed deaths, with six people missing. Roads and hundreds of homes have been damaged, Guatemalan officials say.

DANIEL PARRA AP Residents of San Andres island, Colombia, pick up pieces of a damaged roof in the aftermath of Hurricane Julia on Sunday. Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast after lashing San Andres island, and a weakened storm was expected to emerge over the Pacific.